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Carol Decker, singer in eighties pop legends T’Pau, plays a charity concert in Eastbourne in September. Nick Aldwinckle spoke to her

80s Live! is a new one day event taking place in Eastbourne’s Winter Garden on Saturday, 13 September.

In aid of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, the event sees a host of eighties stars, including T’Pau, Katrina of Katrina and the Waves, Curiosity Killed The Cat, Sonia, Stephen Singleton of ABC and Sigue Sigue Sputnik, take to the stage to raise funds and awareness of the chronic muscle disease.

As well as the main performers, there’s an ‘Acoustic Café’ with local acts and a ‘Silent Auction’ with a Fender Telecaster guitar signed by the Arctic Monkeys up for grabs. Latest 7 met T’Pau’s Carol Decker.

So, how’s it going?
I’ve been doing loads of shows. I did an Ascot race meet last week, where I met Frankie Dettori, which was fun. I’ve been recording solo, not that anyone would know!

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Maturing with every release James Yorkston still flirts with the fringes of psychedelia within his genial folkiness. It’s sensitively textured music, full of lush arrangements, but with a sadness throughout. Lyrically When The Haar Rolls In features plenty of well-turned out phrases, while stylistically Yorkston gently mimics folk’s affectations. A tad over long, and generally of one tempo, Yorkston could have done with a bit off jollying up.

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A weekly review of local and national releases

Canada’s Martha and the Muffins came to prominence back in 1980 with their hit single ‘Echo Beach’. It was their only hit over here but one of the group’s albums Danseparc is being re-released. Unique sounding, their Talking Heads style off-beat new wave and punk funk is quite experimental in places, and works well throughout the album. A lost treasure being resurrected, from an unlikely source.

James Lavelle and Pablo Clements aka UNKLE are known for their marriage of audio and visuals, this time spilling over into End Titles… Stories for Film, a collection of recordings made with various collaborators including Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Chris Goss, James Patralli of White Denim, Abel Ferrera, Black Mountain and Gavin Clarke. Moody, filmic stuff throughout. Too long though, at over 80 minutes.

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Jody White takes us through the happenings at the Camp Bestival music festival at Lulworth Castle, Dorset (Friday 18th - Saturday 19th - Sunday 20th July). Photos by Faye Perriam.

It’s the end of July, and after what can only be described as a patchy summer so far, the inaugural Camp Bestival signalled the early arrival of the Bestival bubble of joyous frivolity into our lives once again, and not a moment too soon. This then the first year of Rob Da Bank and co’s new offshoot from their award-winning September bash and despite a few organisational hiccups, the relaxed atmosphere, the varied entertainment and no shortage of friendly faces successfully combined to remind us that the world isn’t all bad; there aren’t terrorists lurking around every corner, tea and knitting are hip and Roy Walker still has a place in all our hearts.

The focus for this small scale Dorset invasion was clearly family, although Da Bank has said that next year they will be making more of an effort to attract those unburdened by the charming mini-people. Not to say there wasn’t a fair amount of ‘normal’ festival-goers in attendance; the Bestival name now so firmly established that people will buy tickets to an event bearing their name without even knowing exactly what it entails. The mix was pretty much spot on with an estimated 3,500 children attending what was roughly a 10,000 capacity event.

Despite heavy queues to get down the one tiny lane into the site which, bizarrely, only opened its gates at 9am on Friday morning, the walk from the car park to the camp site was short and sweet. Minimal gate fuss, enthusiastic greeters and gaggles of awestruck little ‘uns wobbling around set the tone. For anyone who has never been to Lulworth Castle, the setting is not far short of stunning. Beautiful aged buildings nestled in a valley surrounded by lush green countryside just a spit from the ocean. Indeed, the aptly named Seaview Inn had a fine view of the the water as it emerged from between the converging hills.

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